“Cloud Computing is the next big revolution in IT’’ Says Prof. Buyya in International Seminar in Jamia Millia Islamia

Eminent scientist, Prof Rajkumar Buyya, pioneer of cloud computing and Director, Cloud Computing and Distributed Systems (CLOUDS) Lab. University of Melbourne, Australia said that Cloud Computing was ‘the big switch in IT’ at a keynote address today at Jamia Millia Islamia.Prof Buyya is also founding CEO of multinational software company Manjrasoft. He has over 53000 citations to his credit besides having a 105 h-index and 359 i10-index.

He was speaking at an international seminar on ‘Cloud Computing and Distributed Systems’ organised by the Department of Computer Science, Jamia Millia Islamia. Cloud Computing (CC) is a form of utility computing, which allows users to use computing services on rental basis.

Prof Buyya said that three key attributes of cloud computing included: scalability, reliability and Quality of Service besides market principles that play a very important role in Cloud Computing. Tracing its history to the 1960s when ARPANET was in use he said ‘during the last 45 years several advances have happened in both ‘çomputing’ and ‘communication’ areas that are turning the vision of computer utilities into a reality’.

Prof Buyya informed the audience that cloud computing was useful not only for business applications but also for healthcare, agriculture, smart cities. CC was driven by solving big population problems. He added that by 2050 more than 75% population will live in cities due to migration and cities with their limited resources will eventually rely on the Internet of Things (IoT) to streamline systems. Soon everything, including roads, humans, animals and places of worship will become a part of the internet in Smart cities.

Prof. Buyya cited the shift in computing paradigms from web to cloud computing to big data and now to fog even mist computing. His lecture covered different aspects of cloud computing including fundamentals, market oriented cloud architecture and application domains.

Prof Talat Ahmed, Vice Chancellor, JMI, who presided over the inaugural session as the Chief Guest, said that he was happy to note that the seminar was being held on an important topic that has relevance not just for Computer Sciences but also for several other disciplines. He expressed the hope that the students of JMI and those from other universities attending the seminar will get a heads-up in a technology that will determine the future of the society in many ways. Citing the example of universities, Prof Ahmad said that big data analysis is increasingly being done by specialised agencies that are also developing capacities to keep the data safe from mishaps and loss by among other things, natural calamities like earthquakes.

Dr S.A.M. Rizvi, Professor and Head of the Department of Computer Science said in his introductory remarks that the nation is undergoing a massive digitisation drive and universities are major stakeholders in this process of nation-building. He added that we must see how this technology of cloud computing will offer opportunities to expedite the wonderful renaissance that our society was witnessing at the moment. It also had implications for digital democracy, he added. At the same time it was important that we addressed some issues in the field, including, cyber security, copyrights, patents and concerns around cyber crime.

The seminar was attended by among others, Officer Special Duty (OSD) Prof Sharfuddin Ahmad, Dean, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Prof Sharif Ahmad, Heads of Departments, Directors of Centres and faculty members of the university.

Dr Mansaf Alam, Convenor of the seminar thanked the participants and guests for making the time to attend and exchange ideas on this very important and futuristic subject.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *